The 1912 City Charter set up a commission form of government for the
city of New Orleans, consisting of a mayor and four councilmen elected
at-large. The executive and administrative powers of the city government
were divided among five departments, each with its own commissioner,
designated from among the mayor and councilmen by majority vote of the
Council. The commission council government remained in effect until the
passage of the Home Rule Charter in 1954.

The Department of Public Safety, one of these five departments, was
responsible for fire prevention and relief, police, health, and charity and
relief. The Commissioner of Public Safety also served on the Board of
Commissioners of the Police Department, the Board of Commissioners of
the Fire Department, and the Board of Health.

The surviving records are 5 manuscript volumes and 3 cartons of general
correspondence/subject files.

For each applicant, lists name, address, race, and "remarks" (e.g.,
"badge lost, new license number issued). Also included at the back
of this volume is a fragment of an earlier Livery Permit Register,
1920.

Docket, new barroom licenses, 1912-1919

Lists action taken by the City Council and the Departmen of Public
Safety in granting or refusing applications for barroom licenses.

Docket, continuance of licenses on existing barrooms, 2 v., 1912-1919

Similar to above, but involving renewals of licenses already granted.

The correspondence/subject files have been reconstructed from records
separated into general subject files by previous custodians. Very little has
survived, and what is documented is generally limited to only a few pieces
or to only a short span of time. Among the Public Safety agencies covered
most substantially are the Police Department (files of citizen complaints
referred from Public Safety to the Police Department, 1940-42) and the
New Orleans Safety Council (correspondence and minutes, 1928-30). Also
of interest are invitations received by Commissioner Frank Gomila for the
years 1934-1941, correspondence concerning the Louisiana Leprosorium at
Carville, La., testimony in two court cases involving the Police Department,
a variety of material connected to a ca. 1929 traffic survey of the city, and
a large file of letters offering sites for the construction of new fire houses.

The following men served as Commissioners of Public Safety during the
years covered by these records: